6 ms·

Show HN: Mu – A Micro App Platform

73 points by asim 3y ago

Hey all Sharing a new piece of work I've been doing with a friend. Mu is a new micro web app platform which enables building and sharing apps instantly with storage, auth and payments built in. Apps are single file, built in the browser and rendered as an iframe. They're "micro" because they're quite literally tiny single purpose utilities like a hackernews reader or old school guest book. It's mostly at this point something that scratches a personal itch. Making app development super simple and lightweight. Sort of like living GitHub gists. And trying to build a simpler, cleaner place to consume the web. Right now nothing more than a cool hack I'm sharing. Feedback obviously welcome. Cheers Asim

Rhapso 3y ago
Did we hug the micro app to death?
- p2hari 3y ago
  Looks like it :(
bithavoc 3y ago
I’m trying to use the Community Chat app, send button doesn’t work. I’ll try later, seems interesting.
- martinm3o 3y ago
  Hey, thanks a million for the feedback. I'm the creator of that app and have just fixed this issue. Just to check were you logged in when you tried, as it should have alerted you?
simplify 3y ago
Not the same thing, but another "single file app" platform in the space that looks interesting is https://val.town https://val.town. Could be used as a backend for Mu apps
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- tr3ntg 3y ago
  I thought of val town too when looking at this. Not that it's similar in any one way, but I've never been able to deploy small scripts / micro apps faster than with Val Town
peter_d_sherman 3y ago
Interesting model... Basically a single standard HTML+CSS+JS web page, hosted remotely. With the added ability to do User Authentication, Database Storage and Crypto Payments when hosted remotely, via custom API... Observation: That set of functionality could also be provided via JavaScript library or libraries -- without the requirement for the custom hosting... If so, then that/those library/libraries -- would still require those web services as endpoints... In other words, those libraries could still rely on the site "mu.app" for providing those services... Thus, the author could give away those libraries -- yet still sell those endpoint services -- sort of a SaaS model if you will... Anyway, just thinking aloud... <g> Looks cool -- and there should be many paths towards monetization, if that is desired!
danpalmer 3y ago
“We have built in payments!” The payments: Bitcoin.
- pavlov 3y ago
  - Mom, can I have payments? - We have payments at home
- gchaincl 3y ago
  Bitcoin payments can be non trivial if done via Lightning network (liquidity management is not easy). I can imagine mu.app being a LN payment processor.
  - danpalmer 3y ago
    My point was not that they are easy, but rather that they are not what people expect when a service claims to do payments.
    - chillbill 3y ago
      Depends on the people
    - gchaincl 3y ago
      I see a big potential for unbanked people wanting to make a simple website to perhaps sell their products
    - martinm3o 3y ago
      This is good feedback, I'll look at adding Stripe integration as well as BTC.
    - JuanPosadas 3y ago
      Definitely, and rugpulling "payments" with "only crypto btw" also sets up a huge red flag. Most people are heavily fatigued on weird blockchain projects and looking for any excuse to nope out of this and use a more familiar definitely-not-blockchain competitor. I was wondering if this was a supabase competitor (in the loose sense).
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
sirmike_ 3y ago
What would be the use case for something like this?
curtisblaine 3y ago
Does this support local development?
- martinm3o 3y ago
  Not yet, but this is something I have considered and could open up.
- gchaincl 3y ago
  Definitively a deal breaker considering that there are no way to test the site. A test/sandbox environment could be a good first step
  - martinm3o 3y ago
    You're able to build and test your site within the app before you publish. But after that all pushes are live. Creating a sandbox / branching system is something that can definately be added.
FireInsight 3y ago
So kind of like https://glitch.com/ https://glitch.com/ and https://inbrowser.app/ https://inbrowser.app/ but somehow productized, has a bitcoin donation button, and uses iframes(??). Feels pretty slow too, but that might just be the HN hug of death.
- asim 3y ago
  The HN hug of death definitely playing a part in that but also the app is just not optimised yet for performance. Unfortunately modern frameworks are absolutely terrible.
asim 3y ago
We now have a feedback app if anyone wants to leave us feedback on Mu itself. https://mu.app/feedback https://mu.app/feedback We've also started to aggressively cache some API calls and working on more performance and stability. Additionally we're discovering some nifty hacks like creating your own profile page as an app. Here's mine https://mu.app/asim https://mu.app/asim
asim 3y ago
Also on producthunt now if anyone uses that https://www.producthunt.com/products/mu https://www.producthunt.com/products/mu

73 points by asim 3y ago

Rhapso 3y ago

Did we hug the micro app to death?

p2hari 3y ago
Looks like it :(

bithavoc 3y ago

I’m trying to use the Community Chat app, send button doesn’t work. I’ll try later, seems interesting.

martinm3o 3y ago
Hey, thanks a million for the feedback. I'm the creator of that app and have just fixed this issue. Just to check were you logged in when you tried, as it should have alerted you?

simplify 3y ago

Not the same thing, but another "single file app" platform in the space that looks interesting is https://val.town https://val.town. Could be used as a backend for Mu apps

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
tr3ntg 3y ago
I thought of val town too when looking at this. Not that it's similar in any one way, but I've never been able to deploy small scripts / micro apps faster than with Val Town

peter_d_sherman 3y ago

Interesting model... Basically a single standard HTML+CSS+JS web page, hosted remotely. With the added ability to do User Authentication, Database Storage and Crypto Payments when hosted remotely, via custom API... Observation: That set of functionality could also be provided via JavaScript library or libraries -- without the requirement for the custom hosting... If so, then that/those library/libraries -- would still require those web services as endpoints... In other words, those libraries could still rely on the site "mu.app" for providing those services... Thus, the author could give away those libraries -- yet still sell those endpoint services -- sort of a SaaS model if you will... Anyway, just thinking aloud... <g> Looks cool -- and there should be many paths towards monetization, if that is desired!

danpalmer 3y ago

“We have built in payments!” The payments: Bitcoin.

pavlov 3y ago
- Mom, can I have payments? - We have payments at home
gchaincl 3y ago
Bitcoin payments can be non trivial if done via Lightning network (liquidity management is not easy). I can imagine mu.app being a LN payment processor.
- danpalmer 3y ago
  My point was not that they are easy, but rather that they are not what people expect when a service claims to do payments.
  - chillbill 3y ago
    Depends on the people
  - gchaincl 3y ago
    I see a big potential for unbanked people wanting to make a simple website to perhaps sell their products
  - martinm3o 3y ago
    This is good feedback, I'll look at adding Stripe integration as well as BTC.
  - JuanPosadas 3y ago
    Definitely, and rugpulling "payments" with "only crypto btw" also sets up a huge red flag. Most people are heavily fatigued on weird blockchain projects and looking for any excuse to nope out of this and use a more familiar definitely-not-blockchain competitor. I was wondering if this was a supabase competitor (in the loose sense).

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

sirmike_ 3y ago

What would be the use case for something like this?

curtisblaine 3y ago

Does this support local development?

martinm3o 3y ago
Not yet, but this is something I have considered and could open up.
gchaincl 3y ago
Definitively a deal breaker considering that there are no way to test the site. A test/sandbox environment could be a good first step
- martinm3o 3y ago
  You're able to build and test your site within the app before you publish. But after that all pushes are live. Creating a sandbox / branching system is something that can definately be added.

FireInsight 3y ago

So kind of like https://glitch.com/ https://glitch.com/ and https://inbrowser.app/ https://inbrowser.app/ but somehow productized, has a bitcoin donation button, and uses iframes(??). Feels pretty slow too, but that might just be the HN hug of death.

asim 3y ago
The HN hug of death definitely playing a part in that but also the app is just not optimised yet for performance. Unfortunately modern frameworks are absolutely terrible.

asim 3y ago

We now have a feedback app if anyone wants to leave us feedback on Mu itself. https://mu.app/feedback https://mu.app/feedback We've also started to aggressively cache some API calls and working on more performance and stability. Additionally we're discovering some nifty hacks like creating your own profile page as an app. Here's mine https://mu.app/asim https://mu.app/asim

asim 3y ago

Also on producthunt now if anyone uses that https://www.producthunt.com/products/mu https://www.producthunt.com/products/mu